Après Cancun : la double crise de l'OMC Jean-Marie Paugam in Revue du Marché Commun et de l'Union Européenne, No. 477, April 2004

Relaunching the Doha Round must start with a shared understanding of the causes that led to the failure of Cancun, amongst the WTO membership. Yet the North and the South currently maintain parallel interpretations. Growth crisis on one hand : the developed countries concentrate their approach on improving the governance of the WTO and adjusting the ambitions of its regulatory mission. Crisis of trust on the other hand : the developing countries remain in disarray with the free-trade user’s guide and doubt the priority given to meeting their demands in the Doha Agenda. In fact, the two lines of thought are simultaneously right. The WTO suffers a classical teen-age crisis characterised by body growth and psychological distrust. These two dimensions of the crisis must be tackled simultaneously to overcome the present DDA deadlock. Recognising the double crisis of the multilateral trading system is a precondition to rebuilding a global political consensus over the role of the WTO in international economic cooperation.

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